1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to automated control systems and more particularly to a microprocessor control system for monitoring and controlling a plurality of different parameters or features in commercial settings of the type having a large number of entities each characterized by such parameters or features.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many applications today requiring simple, low-cost control systems for automatically, efficiently and reliably monitoring and controlling in real-time, a plurality of parameters or features of a large number of like-kind entities each characterized by or having such parameters or features, wherein the like-kind entities are typically remotely located from one another but are commonly connected by means of pre-existing communication paths to a central location. The like-kind entities could include such diverse things as hotel/motel rooms, various warehousing and factory units, environmental or condition responsive sensor, and the like, each operatively connected for sending and or receiving electronic signals to or from respectively a common location. Such control systems are particularly suitable for use in large hotels and motels for performing routine monitoring and service functions, heretofore handled in large part by hotel/motel staff, such as recording room telephone calls, handling messages, performing wake-up services, coordinating housekeeping and room cleaning operations and maintaining a real-time log of the housekeeping status of individual rooms throughout the hotel/motel. In hospitals, such control systems are well suited for monitoring and controlling such parameters as individual room and patient status, for automatically handling and alerting staff of messages or other emergency information, for use by pharmacy and housekeeping in performing their respective daily routine services, and the like. In both the hotel/motel and hospital applications, the existing telephone networks throughout the respective institutions provide the requisite communication links between the remotely located entities or rooms and the centrally located telephone equipment bay servicing that hotel/motel or hospital.
In hotel/motel applications for such control systems, the parameters to be monitored and/or controlled on an individual room basis typically include: recording of the number of outgoing telephone calls from each room during a guest's occupancy of that room; activation of a message waiting indicator within a room when an undelivered message is received for the guest of a room, and deactivation of the indicator when delivery of the message is completed; paging of guests throughout common areas of the hotel/motel in response to received messages; providing wake-up calls to guests at desired times of the day in response to personalized guest needs or demands; maintaining a real-time log of a number of different room occupancy and housekeeping status conditions (e.g. that room is occupied or is ready for occupancy, and that room requires cleaning or is presently being cleaned); providing a current listing to housekeeping of those rooms requiring maid service; and incidentally related control functions such as the disabling of room telephone sets when a room is unoccupied or being cleaned, and the enabling of otherwise disabled phones for emergency calls. A number of special purpose electronic systems particularly designed for use in monitoring or controlling one or several of the above-listed parameters or features are known in the art. Such systems have typically comprised special-purpose hardware having individual circuits specifically designed for handling specific ones of the monitored and/or controlled parameters with no operative coordination or interfacing between the circuits handing individual parameters or features. Accordingly, such prior art systems have typically been unduly expensive, complex and cumbersome to install in hotel/motel facilities, and have generally not gained acceptance throughout the industry.
A desirable feature of such control systems suitable for hotel/motel monitoring and control applications, and in particular for the monitoring of and control of such parameters as call-counting and room status, is the ability of the system to directly communicate with and receive input signals from each of the individual rooms throughout the hotel/motel. Those prior art systems attempting to employ the individualized room communication concept have required the alteration of existing communication equipment (such as the telephone sets) within the individual hotel/motel rooms, or the installation of supplemental signal generating or control hardware within the hotel/motel room. Such requirements of the prior art systems made installation of these systems cumbersome and costly, and generally unattractive for installation within existing hotel/motel facilities. Further, many of the prior art control systems required additional wiring to be strung between centralized control circuits and the individual hotel/motel rooms, making installation costs of the system prohibitive for existing hotel/motel structures.
Prior art hotel/motel control systems have typically employed one or a plurality of large, inconvenient display panels having separate display indicators for indicating accumulated counts of outgoing calls for each room, and one or a plurality of display indicators for indicating the particular occupancy or housekeeping status of each individual room throughout the hotel/motel. For example, if a hotel/motel had 2000 room, the display panel would include 2000 separate call-counting accumulated displays and 2000 or more different room status indicators. Such large display panels necessarily require significant valuable space, are typically accessible for use at only a single location and by only those hotel/motel personnel currently working at that location, and are susceptible to less than optimum reliability due to the large number of individual components involved in such displays. Further, such display panels typically require their energizing control circuitry to be mounted directly adjacent the display panel or require a large number of energization conductors (typically one for each room) to be extended between the display panel and the controlling circuitry, making such display systems more difficult to install, more susceptible to reliability failures and more inflexible in their use.
Several prior art control systems for hotel/motel applications, particularly those employing room status monitoring circuits have suggested the use of general purpose computers for performing administrative and record-keeping functions such as billing, handling of advance registrations and the like. Systems employing such computers have typically used such computers in a slave capacity (i.e. in a bookepping, recordkeeping, etc. capacity wherein the computer accepts and responds to instructions initiated by peripheral control circuitry), as opposed to using the computer as the primary control member of the system which performs all decision-making, coordinating and direct circuit control functions of the system. Prior art systems using general-purpose computers have typically employed large computer systems requiring significant space within the hotel/motel and trained personnel to operate and maintain the computer in addition to the required desk personnel, making such systems generally unattractive and prohibitively expensive for installation within other than extremely large hotel/motel facilities.
The present invention overcomes the above disadvantages and inconveniences of prior art control systems. The present invention provides a relatively inexpensive microprocessor controlled control system particularly suitable for performing all of the above-listed parameter monitoring and control functions within a hotel/motel, which system can be operated by existing hotel/motel personnel with a minimum of training, which offers a high degree of versatility, reliability and flexibility, which is capable of automatically coordinating, controlling and monitoring a large number of separate parameters or features on a room by room basis for a large number of such rooms, and which can be readily installed within existing hotel/motel structures without any required rewiring to individual hotel/motel rooms and without any addition to or alteration of existing telephone equipment within the individual hotel/motel rooms.